Just What I Kneaded

HOW BEER BREAD IS TAKING OVER THE BURGH

With so many new breweries popping up, it’s only natural this sudsy elixir has made its way into our cuisine. Although beer bread has been a tried-and-true classic of home baking since nearly the beginning of time, it is only recently that it started slicing onto local menus.

Take Prohibition Pastries (prohibitionpastries.com): New in the Point Breeze area, this bakery is your one-stop shop for sweets and bread made with locally crafted wine, spirits, and beer. Their Irish Brown Bread, made with East End Brewing Co.’s Vanilla Coffee Porter, and Honey Beer Bread, made with Hop Farm Brewing Co.’s Dahntahn Brown, are dense, savory, satisfying, and crazy-good. I feel strongly that their Barley Wine Pretzel Rolls are the best buns that I have ever had. Made with Barley wine-style ale from East End Brewing Co., they are authentically golden, buttery, salty and untraditionally boozy. (When they’re out, they’re out. So get there early.)

Matt Gouwens, mastermind at Hop Farm Brewing Co. (hopfarmbrewingco.com), is incorporating craft malts and ales into pizza dough and rolls. Gouwens suggests that using a beer that is low in hops is essential when baking, so your bread doesn’t turn out bitter. I personally recommend using Hop Farm’s F-41 Cream Ale or their One Nut Brown for wholesome, off-sweet, hearty beer bread.

I’m also looking forward to the opening (Summer/Fall 2019) of Justin Severino’s Brewpub at East End Brewing Co. (eastendbrewing.com). The restaurateur plans to experiment with using beer to flavor mustards, meats, bread, and to make vinegar with 100% natural fermentation. “Beer smells good, it tastes good, gets you drunk — so why the f--- not cook with it?” Severino quips.

story by kelly kinsey // photography by adam milliron styling by annemarie leyden